This invention relates to a new and very safe therapy which involves treatment with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) of patients in the normal practice of dentistry who have periodontal disease. The gingiva of these patients with periodontal disease are afflicted with diverse microorganisms which are the primary cause of the initiation and development of dental caries and loss of bone support.
There has never been a completely effective and safe therapy to diminish or eradicate microorganisms in periodontal disease. Anti-microbial agents and antibiotics have been used but have never been totally effective, although they have been widely and commonly used in dental practice across the country. Many periodontal patients do not respond to treatment with such agents and antibiotics.
Many or most patients with periodontal disease have depressed immune systems which allow the growth and presence of microorganisms in the diseased gingiva. A new and far better approach to reduce subgingival microorganisms of patients with periodontal disease is to rejuvenate the depleted immune system of patients.
The human immune system is very complex and incompletely understood. No therapeutic approach has heretofore been established to improve the immune system and thereby reduce microorganisms in diseased gingiva. There are at least two general approaches for stimulation of the immune system by biochemical mechanisms. One such approach is to use immune stimulants which are foreign to the human body and which may be categorized as non-specific adjuvants or medicinals. A second and far better approach is to activate intrinsic mechanisms of the immune system by using substances which are normally present in human tissue, and which are known to stimulate the immune system. This latter approach has the advantage of avoiding undesirable side effects commonly associated with non-specific medicinals foreign to the human body, but which can stimulate the immune system.
T4 helper-inducer lymphocytes facilitate plasma cells to secrete antibodies, induce maturation of T8 cytotoxic cells, and suppress maturation of B-cells. The T4 helper-inducer lymphocytes may induce maturation of B-cells, proliferation of memory clones, and induce T8 suppressor cells. In turn, the T8 suppressor cells are known to suppress differentiation to T8 cells by the participation of a suppressor factor. It is known that CoQ10 is stimulatory of the immune system in vivo as may be monitored by the ratio of T4/T8 lymphocytes.
Bliznakov et al. used CoQ10 to treat mice susceptible to tumors which may be induced by dibenzpyrene. Bliznakov et al. observed a resultant reduction of the percentage of mice with tumors, and a reduction in the tumor size or number of those mice that developed tumors, as well as an increase in the number of survivors (Experientia, 26; 953-954 (1970). Also, Bliznakov et al. investigated a parasitic model which consisted of mice that had been infected with the malarial organism, Plasmodium berghei. Bliznakov et al. found the CoQ10 potentiated the effectiveness of chloroquin, increased survivors, prolonged the survival time, and reduced the parasitemia in the red blood cells of mice infected with this malarial organism. Bliznakov et al. therefore, had demonstrated that CoQ10 interacted in the mechanisms of the immune system (Book of Abstracts, VI International Meeting of the Reticuloendothelial Society, Freiburg, Germany, p. 14 (1970); Bliznakov et al., The Reticuloendothelial System and Immune Phenomena, edited by DiLuzio, N. R., Plenum Press, N.Y., 315-322 (1971).
A technique for controlling and/or reversing immunological senescence in animals was found by administering CoQ10 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,858).
The present invention resulted from experimentation directed toward minimizing and even eliminating microorganisms present in the diseased gingiva of patients having periodontal disease.
Twenty-two patients with periodontal disease, 11 males and females, ages 22 to 66, were orally treated with 100 mg of CoQ10 for two months. The gingival index decreased (p less than 0.01), the pocket depth decreased (p less than 0.00l), but the plaque index did not change. Of the subgingival microorganisms, motile rods decreased (p less than 0.01) and spirochetes decreased (p less than 0.02). In 4/22 patients, all motile microorganisms in the gingiva remarkably disappeared. The T4/T8 ratios increased (p less than 0.001); the blood levels of CoQ10 increased (p less than 0.001).
For convenience of patients, this therapeutic trial with CoQ10 was limited to only two months. CoQ10 is not a drug, but is intrinsic to the bioenergetics of the immune system and to the gingival metabolism. Therapy with CoQ10 at a higher dose level and/or beyond two months is even more therapeutically effective.